Lots of readers are struggling to find cost-effective ways to get their vintage appliances — stoves, fridges, stovetops, dishwashers — repaired safely and cost-effectively. Atomicbowler-dave recently provided this advice, which is in synch, I think, with successes other readers have had:
Where to turn to get your vintage appliances repaired? Dave suggests:
I can’t help but wonder on the parts issue… There are certainly times and places where a certain amount of substitution and reverse-engineering of sorts can go a long way.
Certainly, no one should monkey in places they are unsure or uncomfortable when it comes to items that could cause fire, shock or injury.
One thing I have observed, experienced and often engaged in…whether with boats, obscure foreign and antique cars, old equipment, appliances, etc…is a certain amount of mix-and-match and/or artful adaptation. Where there is a will, there is often a way.
I am often leery myself of too much advice bantered about via the internet as one really can’t see, meet or know the source and get a solid feeling for the person’s real acumen.
I’m a big fan of solid, experienced, local people if they can be found. I am an even bigger fan of the “old guys”–most of whom are by now retired or gone on away–who collected the tribal knowlege and also came from an era more imbued with need and willingness for make-do. Heck, most of the ‘ability’ or ‘knowledge’ that I have? Whatever it is that tends to put me in the topkick roles professionally? I learned it from old guys who are now gone, most of it…or at least the foundation that I’ve had to build my own on. (Before my head sounds swelled, let me say that when I get compliments, extra respect or whatever in these jobs, I hold private feelings of unworthiness…because I know who the real hotdogs were, and that I’m not half of them. Just that they’re gone, and that I listened to some of them when they were still around.) The sad part is that I only learned bits and pieces of what these fellows spent decades learning!
My point here–and I do have one–is that in dealing with obscure and obsolete things it can often be best to seek out the retirees or the guys that just keep their hands in part-time…if at all possible. These fellows are usually of the type to know both what TO do and what NOT to do, but also have the historical background to say ‘Hey, I bet I could make the kanooten valve from xyz item work in here’.
If you can find this sort of ‘professional’ help, it’s likely the best of all. There can be some great personal benefits for everyone, too. Good luck with those appliances, I sort of envy your present challenges as I don’t yet have my own cool kitchen to cope with!
Dave
Thanks, Dave. I love the idea of finding retirees or long-time, hometown shops that have a real history with old appliances and are willing to patiently work though the issues with you. I can’t recall exactly – but I *think* it was Gretchen in Sacramento who also recently reported success with her Thermador cooktop working with a smaller, local shop. (Gretchen, am I right? Can you weigh in?) So it can be done. Meanwhile, Precautionary Pam weighs in: Work with licensed professionals. Do not mess with stuff you don’t understand. Empower yourself with your own thoroughly researched knowledge about safety and environmental issues in your vintage home.
Finally, the awesome photo gets an explanation: Dave and Laura go by the handles here of atomicbowler-dave and atomicbowler-laura. What a pair! Dave explains that Laura’s favorite colors are turquoise and pink, so he bought here this new (vintage-look) bowling ball last year for her birthday. 
The Sixties turn 50 
A happy ending for Ashley, Doug and some beautiful vintage Kelvinator appliances 
Sumac Sue in Lexington KY spots pink appliances at the ReStore – snap ‘em up quick! 
What a great post. I too have learned so much from the “old guys” one of whom was my father. There was also that guy down the street who was always tinkering in his garage…
Another source might be the guy in that old TV repair, or Vacuum cleaner shop. It seems like every city has one, a tiny storefront tucked away in a little strip mall off the main street. It’s the kind of place you wonder how it stays in business. I’ve turned to those guys more than once.
I’d like to introduce you to my favorite future old guy, Dave Harnish. He’s great with sound advice on keeping your solid old appliances running as they should rather than just throwing them out and replacing. He’s very nice, too.
http://www.davesrepair.com
He has a particular fondness for old Sunbeam mixers.
My comment is more old house than old appliance specific, but I have learned my lesson the hard way in this regard. I’ve had water pipes and fittings crumble in a 25 year old plumber’s unaccustomed hands. When I need repair work done I ask one very important question: Does the repairman have knowledge and experience working with older homes? Then I ask the guy even further once he shows up about his experience. If I sense they are all “let’s just rip it out and start from scratch” I won’t do business with them. Like I say, I learned the hard way after some major post-hurricane renovations five years ago.
I totally agree with Dave regarding reverse engineering. A little ingenuity with available parts can go a long way. That is part of what our repairman did for our Tradewind double oven. I wrote about it here: http://eichlerific.blogspot.com/2009/10/locally-and-family-owned-appliance.html I think it just takes a little while finding the right people for the right job. Lots of phone calls and research but it pays off.
There are also online forums of enthusiasts and collectors of the old stuff and it’s looking there. For example: http://automaticwasher.org/index.htm http://www.toaster.org/ http://www.antiquestoves.com/toac/index.htm and http://www.vacuumland.org/ I’m sure there are more out there.
It’s also a certain mindset to keep a well-built and solid appliance out of the landfill. Not cheap for labor costs but we do get to keep our vintage set that we oh-so-love. Recently our eight-year old washing machine failed and we had to throw it away. The replacement part costs the same as the newer model. What a shame!
There are a host places to go on the net that can definately help you with vintage appliances….both major AND small.
For advice and help on repairing vintage major appliances…try asking for advice at my favorite website….AUTOMATICWASHER.ORG…..believe it or not there are a A LOT of people (some of which frequent this site) who post on that site that have actually restored vintage major appliances from the likes fo early automatic washer and dryers to dishwasher, stoves and fridges. People at the site are always willing to give advice on where to find parts and even tell you how they fixed problems like ones you might be having. Also you can see pics and videos of some of the awesomne restored appliances. Also there are sources like the Old Appliance Club (www.antiquestoves.com) that can help you find parts. There is also Jowers Antique Appliances (www.antiqueappliances.com) in Clayton Ga. that restores vintage stoves and fridges and has some replacement parts for stoves and fridges (check their site for specifics).
Now for small appliances like toasters and waffle irons there is Micheal Sheaffe in New York who runs Toastercentral.com. He restores and sells old toasters, waffle irons, and Sunbeam Slow Cookers.
If you have a Sunbeam Self lowering Radiant Control Toaster that needs a adjustment take a look at this web site automaticbeyondbelief.org. This web site is dedicated to the self lowering toasters that Sunbeam made from 1949 to 1997.
For vintage mixers and Kitchen Aid Coffee Grinders there is Deco Dan (www. Decodan.com) Check out his site.
For advice about vintage vacuums there is vacuumland.org which is the website for the Vacuum Cleaner Collectors Club. This is actually a sister site to Automaticwasher.org and you will find as many knowledgeable vintage vacuum folk here as you will find anywhere.
Last but not least if you have a vintage fan that needs a hand (sorry couldn’t resist getting cute) go to http://www.fancollectors.org home of the Antique Fan Collectors Association
As for me I am lucky I have a tv guy, a radio guy, and a small appliance repair shop all with in a half hour of my pad that will fix my vintage stuff……..
Woah, thanks for all those great resources, Patrick! I think that I will have to pull them all together somewhere in 2010.
I just had our Thermador cooktop repaired as a Christmas present for my husband. I called Thermador and they sent a local repair person out. It wasn’t super cheap ($160 to repair two non-working burners) but they did an excellent job.
I had my circa-1950 Sunbeam Mixmaster completely overhauled a couple years ago by a guy in Canada. It was my mother’s mixer and is older than I am—but not by much! She gave it to me years ago, and I have always treasured it.
When it began to slow down and run very hot, I found Phil’s Appliance Science in Canada after an exhaustive internet search.
Seemed kind of crazy to mail an old mixer from Pennsylvania to Canada for repairs (and I cannot remember exactly why I decided to do it), but turned out to be a great decision. Phil completely overhauls the motor/engine/whatever is inside, and cleans and restores luster to the exterior as well. I was thrilled.
The total cost was less than any new mixer would have been—but best of all, my mom’s old mixer is good as new now, and should last another 50 years!
If you Google his name, he does have a web page.
The information is:
Phil’s Appliance Science
49 Francis St N
Kitchener ON N2H 5C4
Canada
1-519-747-7220
info@mixerfixer.com
What Patrick said — good work!
I tried commenting twice and my posts keep evaporating.
For those of you in NYC, Paul at Central Range (in Queens) spruced up my gas, 1950s Caloric wall oven & cooktop, and got tem working again. Nobody else would go near these appliances! I don’t have his contact info in front of me, but if you need him & can’t find him, I can hunt it down.
Forgot to mention, if you’re in the Sacramento region — we had our double TradeWinds oven repaired by Zajic Appliance Sales and Service, an old-school family-run local business.
So it WAS you, wasn’t it, Gretchen, that I knew had found success?
In Los Angeles, I use Sav-on Appliances. They sell, restore and repair vintage stoves and fridges. The guy who started it, Emmett Julian, is semi-retired now, but his daughter Lisa and her crew of repairmen always respond quickly and do a good job. I’ve been using them for about 8 years now to fix appliances in my apartment rentals.
They have two locations, one in Burbank and one in Reseda:
http://www.savonappliance.com/
Precautionary Pam here: I want to note that I do not endorse any of these recommendations… but for now, I’ll let readers continue to share their experience in the spirit of enabling other homeowners to begin their own research. If you want to post a resource and I don’t recognize you, by the way, I might not approve the comment as I do not want spammers jumping in on this. FOLKS: Please make sure that you do YOUR OWN research to verify that you are working with a safe, experienced, licensed professional!
As you know I’m a huge fan of Chamber stoves and I’m not alone.
I don’t know of another brand of stove that has the near cult like following these stoves have, for good reason.
Lots of help, information and parts can be found at
http://www.chamberstoves.net/
Many people have done complete restorations of their Chambers stoves with great results.
To follow up on Pam’s post, I know a lot of people on other home improvement sites were scammed by a guy restoring vintage stoves (some they’d sent to him, some were advertised on his site). Be careful who you give your money to, and if possible, use a credit card with buyer protection!
In Houston, TX, I have heard that Macy’s Classic Stove Works is the place to go.
Does anyone have a source for cool vintage small-appliance parts—for, say, coffeemakers? A while ago I commented on a thread with source info (my local Ace Hardware) for vintage-type pot and pan lids and handles, percolator tops, etc…
But, this goes further inside. Specifically, Laurs found me this flat-out AWESOME 32-cup ‘Drip-o-Lator’ complete with a seperate ‘launch pad’ looking-stand. Sad to say tho that the tube, asket and top are not with it.
Any ideas? Much appreciated!
Dave
We just had the unfortunate experience of our bake element going out in our 50′s GE wall oven just at Christmas baking season. My husband was a repairman over 20 years ago and told me to go to Vinh’s, the next town over. He first said he didn’t have the part until I told him that it was out of a ’59 oven and he went to the back room and came right back out with one, gave me the fittings to change and told me the particulars on angle. Yeah, the old guys know what they are doing! Lifelong customer he earned!
For small appliance parts; I am not above buying ones on ebay or from Goodwill and scavenging the parts and stashing the rest away in the attic for later needed parts. It’s been the best way I’ve found. I’m going to be one of the old ladies that when people go to her estate sale they are going to be wondering what on earth I needed 5 blenders for! And, yes, I have 4 blenders (thus far)!!!
HaHa! That’s why I have two Kitchenaid mixers! LOL!
I need to get a braun #4050 coffee maker repaired. Its been in a box for 20 years and love the way it looks, but it doesnt work, any ideas
I posted this on the forum, but my story fits this topic well:
We just purchased a red Chambers stove that had not been moved since it was installed in 1952. It was still hooked up to the gas. The point is that back then there was no separate gas shut-off – the gas had to be shut off at the Main (on the sidewalk) and capped at the wall. (Normally if you are re-modeling you would have a shut-off installed, not a cap, but this house was sold and the new owners are going to knock it down
)
This is what happened (we HAD to hire a pro because of the gas situation):
(The company in Queens that I had tried to contact is Central Range, mentioned by Ashley above. Too bad I couldn’t get in touch with him
Ok, what happened was that my mom was offered a low-back Chambers in white for $100. But we didn’t want a white one, and it would cost at least $2000.00 to have it re-enameled to a new color. So, I checked Ebay and there it was – a 1952 Chambers Deluxe high-back in RED in Queens, NY (1 hour from me)! It still worked, but had never been moved since the kitchen was built. He wanted $775, but I got it for $600 (he wouldn’t take $500).
I found a restorer in Queens, but he had no website and when we called we only got the answering machine. Called a few times over a few days and finally the machine was full. The guy who owned the stove said he knew of the restorer, but he was old back then, so maybe he had retired. We ended up calling the Stove Lady in Westchester (the next closest restorer) and she refused to give a quote without seeing the stove.
The cost to have the stove picked up and brought to the shop was $400, so I tried calling a bunch of appliance repair people that were closer to the stove (and me) and the replies were as follows:
1) we DO NOT disconnect gas stoves! (weird!)
2) NO CHAMBERS! (OK!)
3) We can disconnect it, but we can’t move it because we are just a husband and wife – the stove is too heavy! Also, we can’t get parts!
Back to The Stove Lady – she knows what she is doing, and the stove HAD to be removed ASAP (house was sold)! So I had another long conversation with her – there are 3 levels of restoration – FULL – completely dismantled, re-built and refinished (new chrome, re-porcelained grates, and re-enameled body) – I do not want the body re-enameled because it looks as great as any original finish I’ve ever seen. Tier 2 – restore to working order (with safety system – required by code) and fix other parts, re-chrome top and re-porcelain grates. Tier 3 – just get it up to code and clean it.
The choice was to pay her $265 to drive out and look at it and tell us if it is worth it or not, but then if we wanted it we would have to pay another $400 to move it. Or pay $400 to move it to her shop and $165 to have her hook it up to the gas, analyze it and give us the 3 different quotes. We opted to have it moved now – otherwise we would be out an extra $200 or so for nothing. It was working, and the body finish was great, so I knew this was the best stove we’d find (no stove that old can just be moved and installed as-is – the plumber / gas company would “Red Tag” it as not up to code).
Now we are waiting for the 3 different quotes. Part of the deposit goes towards restoration. She refused to give a ball-park because every stove is different. She did imply that it will be well over $2,000 though.
We will probably go Tier 2 – because I know that it was working and I don’t want it re-painted. The good thing about this stove is that it had the original Thermowell pots and baking unit – extremely hard to find and worth at least $500 – that alone was worth getting the stove (most old ones don’t include these).
Because I live in NY, as opposed to CA, I didn’t have many choices. The next nearest restorers are in MA or RI – and the cost of shipping alone would be more than having it moved by the Stove Lady twice.
This was one of those crazy bite-the-bullet, close your eyes and just go for it purchases!
I HOPE it won’t total more than $6,000 because I could get an already-restored red one for $7,000-$8,000 (but that would have to be shipped from far away).
Because of this unexpected splurge we are seriously considering doing a retro kitchen with vintage metal cabinets (can’t find any new quality wood cabinets that cost less than $30,000, and the cheaper ones just do not compare to the quality of what was made back then).
So, this is a warning story for anyone who gets a “great deal” on an antique gas stove.
That being said, if we sell the house the stove will NOT be included in the sale!
Now we are looking at a vintage wall oven too! HOPEFULLY I can get in touch with Central Range in Queens to check that out. I’ve heard that electric ovens can cost more to fix (because accessing the elements is complicated), but the one we are interested in did work until it was removed. Hopefully a new power cord will do. I just do NOT want to deal with anymore gas hook-ups! I also have a vintage jadeite fan (somewhere in a box) that works but needs a new cord.
Will this all be worth the hassle? I hope so. I just hope it costs at least a few thousand dollars less than purchasing an already-restored model because my dream stove is actually the Baby Blue Chambers to go with my Art Deco 10″ deep sink with drainboards that I traveled 5 hours to get a few years ago (that really should be re-enameled even though it is better than any other old sink I’ve seen).
Truthfully, what bugs me most is that a “restorer” vs. a repair person costs more. I was hoping to save money by having the top re-chromed and grates re-porcelained on my own (my mother’s employer works with a local chroming shop). The restorers all ship them out anyway – kind of like hiring a General Contractor to work on your house – they hire sub-contractors and take a cut for themselves. But at this point I am stuck. Technically I could just have it repaired and cleaned, but what we are afraid of is that we won’t be able to take everything apart and put it back together on our own. We’ll see what happens when we get the quotes.
yup, natschulz, it’s all a huge pain. i think you are new-ish to the blog? be sure to read my annual new year’s day post: http://retrorenovation.com/2010/01/01/the-hard-way/